Job 18

18 ¹ Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ² "How long will you hunt for words? Show some sense, and then we can talk. ³ Why are we treated like cattle, counted as stupid in your sight? ⁴ You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger — should the earth be abandoned for your sake, or the rock be moved from its place? ⁵ Yes, the light of the wicked is snuffed out, and the flame of his fire goes dark. ⁶ The light grows dark in his tent, and the lamp above him goes out. ⁷ His vigorous strides are cut short, and his own schemes throw him down. ⁸ His own feet drive him into a net, and he walks right into its mesh. ⁹ A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare grips him tight. ¹⁰ A noose is hidden for him in the ground, and a trap lies waiting on his path. ¹¹ Terrors startle him on every side and chase him at his heels. ¹² His strength is starved away, and calamity stands ready for his fall. ¹³ It devours patches of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs. ^a a v13 "The firstborn of death" is a poetic expression for a lethal, wasting disease — death's deadliest agent. ¹⁴ He is torn from the safety of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors. ¹⁵ Fire settles in his tent, no longer his own; burning sulfur is scattered over his home. ¹⁶ His roots dry up below, and his branches wither above. ¹⁷ His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the streets. ¹⁸ He is driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world. ¹⁹ He leaves no offspring or descendant among his people, no survivor where he once lived. ²⁰ Those in the west are appalled at his fate, and those in the east are seized with horror. ²¹ Surely this is what becomes of the dwellings of the wicked, the place of the one who does not know God."